RETIRED lawyer and former United Bermuda Party MP and Cabinet Minister William Cox has published 2,000 copies of an epistolatory booklet titled Independence? in which he makes plain that his sympathies lie with maintaining Bermuda's current constitutional position.

In a foreword to a collection of seven letters mostly relating to Bermuda's constitutional relationship to the UK, Mr. Cox makes the case that "Bermuda has always benefited from this UK connection and the peace and prosperity we have enjoyed throughout our history and still enjoy is in no small measure due to this connection".

He advises that "as with all relationships, if it is to work it must be a two-way street, which means it is necessary for there to be good relations between the Governor and the local Government".

Mr. Cox (pictured) takes successive Governments to task, arguing that while "the UK Government has always gone more than half way to meet the aspirations of the Bermuda Government . . . the Bermuda Government has not displayed the same goodwill in return, especially in the last 30 or so years".

He lists a dozen events or factors that have made things difficult for the UK Government to work in harmony with the Bermuda Government over these years, including the 1972 murder of Police Commissioner George Duckett, the 1973 murders of Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his aide-de-camp Captain Hugh Sayers, and the decision of "the Gibbons Government" to hang the perpetrators.

He alleges that "the 1983 Swan Government, spearheaded by the Finance Minister David Gibbons, publicly hounded Governor Richard Posnett out of office on trumped-up, spurious charges" and that the Pamela Gordon Government did likewise to Police Commissioner Colin Coxall in 1997. The Progressive Labour Party is not spared: Jennifer Smith is castigated for announcing the holding of a general election in 2002 without telling the Governor, and Premier Alex Scott for using the need for the appointment of a Chief Justice as an excuse to make irresponsible political and personal attacks on the Governor in the media.

Mr. Cox warns: "If the Bermuda Government wishes to sever all links with the UK, it must hold a referendum and get a significant majority of Bermudians to support such a move."

He suggests that "for members of the Bermuda Government not to observe at least the basic minimum of the courtesies which should be observed in ordinary human relations when dealing with the Governor indicates nothing other than bad breeding and ill manners".